The new EU Commissioner for Budget, combating financial fraud, and public administration, Piotr Serafin, suggests that the budget for the next EU financial perspective should be more flexible so as to respond in the event of unpredictable events. In the upcoming months, consultations will be held with member states and the European Parliament on the priority areas for the next seven years.
During Wednesday’s vote, the European Parliament approved the formation of the new European Commission for the next term. It will officially start its work on December 1st. As Piotr Serafin emphasized, the vote concludes a time when European institutions were mainly focused on themselves, but now will engage in issues such as the escalation of war in Ukraine, the weakening European economy or relations with the new administration in Washington.
– Defense expenditures at the national level will certainly increase. Today’s question to the member states is: will we be more efficient, get more security for the same money by spending part of the funds on defense together through the European budget, or through other tools that could be established at the European level– said Dr. Piotr Serafin to journalists during a meeting in Strasbourg. – This question was raised in discussions at the European Council a few months ago, and today, especially in the light of the election results in the United States, will return.
The main task of the Polish commissioner will be to work on the shape of the multiannual financial framework (MFF) after 2027. As emphasized in her Wednesday speech in the European Parliament by the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, there should be more focus on investing in priorities. Piotr Serafin is to take charge of their establishment in cooperation with the European Parliament, the EU Council, and member states.
– Today we have a lot of funds and programs that duplicate each other when it comes to goals. This makes things incredibly complicated primarily for those who have to benefit from the European budget, and this leads to various mistakes, misunderstandings, auditors’ issues. This is another line that we need to address – says the commissioner.
During the hearing in the European parliament, which took place on November 7th, the EU Commissioner for Budget, combating financial fraud and public administration stressed the need to balance in the MFF new priorities, such as defense or digitization, with existing policies in areas of climate, agriculture, or cohesion.
– I know what priorities Poland has, I know how important the cohesion policy is for Poland, I know how important the agricultural policy is, but I also know that defense policy and expenditures for common security are also one of the directions which, especially for countries bordering Russia and Belarus, will be extremely serious – says Piotr Serafin.
He also emphasizes the need to create a more flexible budget, which will allow agile response to unforeseen circumstances, which we have often faced in the recent years.
– We in Poland have recently experienced a flood, but we also had a pandemic, we have a war on the European continent and real problems of regions bordering Russia or Belarus. Today’s European budget does not have the flexibility that would allow responding to such challenges – explains the commissioner.
In his speech before the MEPs, Piotr Serafin also declared his commitment to working towards stronger protection against financial abuses and rule of law protection related to EU funds. He proposed the creation of a competitiveness fund to stimulate innovation.
– I want the European Union to be synonymous with security, especially in a time when a war is raging east of Poland. I would also like the European Union to be synonymous with freedom, not just penalties and demands, because freedom was the force that attracted us to membership in the European Union. And finally, I would say, the European Union must once again become synonymous with innovation and competition. Those are the three big tasks that I see both for the entire Commission and for myself – summarizes Piotr Serafin.
